What is a carbon neutral product?

Technology giant Apple has just unveiled its first-ever carbon neutral products. Innovations in design and clean energy means it has been able to drastically cut the emissions associated with its smartwatches, the tech giant says.

Apple may not be the first company to release products that, on balance, create no emissions, but it is certainly the biggest. But what are carbon neutral products exactly? And can we expect to see more of them?

Simply put, the production, use and disposal of a carbon neutral product does not result in any extra carbon being added to the atmosphere. That is not to say that no carbon emissions are created because of the product – just that every effort has been made to reduce emissions, with the remaining amount offset by the company in some manner.

In Apple’s case, it has managed to reduce emissions for its watches by 75% by using only clean energy in their production; ensuring 30% of the material is recyclable or renewable; and shipping half of its products by means other than air. This reflects the fact that electricity, materials and transportation are the three biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions for the company.

To determine whether a product is carbon neutral, its manufacturer must do a life cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate all the emissions produced during the product's lifetime – from raw material extraction to manufacturing, transportation and finally disposal.

Increasing numbers of products are now made of – or contain – recycled materials, and companies are working to eliminate plastic from their packaging. Innovations in charging technology, efficiency and battery power are also having an impact on cutting carbon footprints.

But, for a company, curbing and offsetting its own emissions in the process of creating its products or delivering its services is only the first step in achieving carbon neutrality. A much harder challenge comes in balancing out the carbon emissions created by third parties along the supply chain or during use of the product. These are typically referred to as Scope 3 emissions.

There are several ways companies have been tackling this issue. For example, for its new watches, Apple is also matching the expected electricity use by customers when they charge them through investments in large-scale solar and wind projects.

Elsewhere, Microsoft, which has made its Xbox carbon neutral, and has released “carbon-aware” PCs and Xboxes that seek to run updates and maintenance at times when the highest proportion of electricity from lower-carbon sources is available.

Once a company knows the emissions associated with its products or services, it can work to reduce them – but it's often impossible to eliminate all emissions. So to achieve carbon neutrality, they can offset any remaining unavoidable emissions. This means investing in projects like reforestation or renewable energy that actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere, counterbalancing the product's carbon footprint.

However, it is crucial that these offsets are high quality, supporting measurable, verifiable projects that genuinely remove carbon from the atmosphere. It is also important to note that offsetting carbon is always going to be harder than avoiding its emission in the first place.

Some products allow you to go carbon neutral as a consumer by paying a small premium at purchase to cover offsetting. Aeroplane tickets sometimes give an option to offset your share of the flight's emissions. The airline then uses your offset payment to invest in certified projects that reduce or remove the equivalent amount of emissions.

Communications company Telefónica has, for example, created a carbon-neutral device marketplace that allows customers to offset the emissions associated with their new phones.

Some offsetting schemes can be controversial however, with some people arguing that they are a distraction from the need to make meaningful changes to business practices. To reach net-zero, we need to ensure the priority is on reducing emissions.

The materials used to manufacture a product are a key part of assessing its life cycle emissions. Some materials have a much higher carbon footprint than others. For example, concrete produces a lot of greenhouse gases during production, while wood stores carbon if harvested sustainably.

Recycled and renewable products are likely to have a lower carbon footprint than those made using “virgin materials”. This is why putting in place a circular economy is so important, where products that have come to the end of their useful life are kept within the system and reused.

It is impossible for a product to have literally zero impact on the environment, but carbon neutral products mark an important step for companies and consumers in taking responsibility for their environmental footprint.

The World Economic Forum hosted a series of Sustainable Development Impact Meetings alongside the United Nations General Assembly in September, bringing together stakeholders to address how we can accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals were initially established in 2015 and have a deadline of 2030, but progress towards achieving the SDGs has been slower than what is needed.